Yesterday’s post about SEC revenue figures for 2008 generated some discussion in the comments about the numbers put up by Georgia’s athletic department and what Georgia’s relative standing in the conference for income production might mean.

The athletic association expects to rake in about $85 million this year, mainly from its football team, while paying out about $70 million in operating expenses, according to financial documents it released this month.

That’s about a $10 million swing to the good from 2008’s numbers. That’s not too shabby for a recession year.

The numbers from the football and basketball programs appear solid. UGA is even with or ahead of all the other top teams in the SEC with those programs. That is not where the problem appears. The problem is with the “other income” that makes up the difference between football/basketball gross revenue and total gross revenue. It appears that when all sources of revenue are being considered (advertising, licensing,etc.) there is a shortfall for UGA of many millions of dollars compared to other top SEC schools such as FLA, Bama, LSU, Auburn,etc. All you have to do is compare the gross revenues on the chart the Senator linked for “2008’s numbers” to see it. Those of you in blogland who are accountants take a look.